Puzzle Pieces
by Cooking Spray
Summary: An anthology of vignettes once the beginnings of fics. The third and fourth are unique SetoxAnzu and IsisxBakura romances.
1. Snowflakes on My Shoulders

Snowflakes on My Shoulders by Cooking Spray  
  
Originally intended to be chaptered, I just never got around to it. A cute Mokuba/Rebecca fic with a Christmas setting.  
  
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A warm glow was cast upon the street from the yellow light spilling onto the pavement, little shops casting their mark into the wintry city. It was sort of comforting, you could almost feel the heat creeping into you from their quaint depths.  
  
Tiny snow flurries spiraled from the sky, and the icy wind whirled them into the air, creating a frothy display. The tip of Rebecca's nose tingled with cold, and her eyes glittered as she drank it all in. It almost made her heart ache for home, her own American Christmas tree, but she was too lost in loveliness of it all to be too homesick, even though her circumstances for even being there were grim.  
  
Mokuba crossed his arms boyishly behind his neck, searching the snow- filled sky. "So.......... why do you come here for Christmas? In Japan? Another championship?"  
  
Rebecca shock her head. "I told my father about the technology used in Duel Monsters here in Japan. He's the one who picked up the game from his grandfather and was very interested." Her eyes fell to the sidewalk, already begining to gather a fine white dust. "He has his own company surrounding the game back home. He came here to study concepts created by KaibaCorp to put out some competition for our customers." She sighed. "Unfortunately, he scheduled the trip right around the holidays. He's such a businessman. He said it'd be the best Christmas we'd ever had, and he promised to make it up to us, but my mother and I aren't too happy about being away from the family. Everything is so different here." She kicked up some snow with her boot, making a powdery plume splay out around her foot.  
  
Mokuba was watching the sidewalk now, seeming to have listened to Rebecca's explanation. "I know what it's like, to feel lost sometimes."  
  
She twisted her head up with a jolt, studying him. He was as mysterious as his older brother, it was hard to know exactly what he was thinking or feeling. He seemed to make Rebecca's petty troubles and whimpers trivial, and perhaps they were to him. His past was foreign to her. Yet, he had a maturity beyond his years. This was curious; Rebecca wanted to know more.  
  
"You feel that way too? But I thought you and your brother were close."  
  
A faint smile came to his lips. "Nii-sama is the only family I have. My parents are both gone. My mother died in childbirth with me; my father a few years later in an accident at work." Did the smile look remorseful now? "I was adopted, by a man named Gozaburo, the president of KaibaCorp. But it turned out he only wanted nii-sama as a heir to carry on the company legacy. He died of a heart attack a few years ago, but by that time nii- sama was old enough to care for me. He continued his duties as CEO and takes care of me in the mansion." His smile grew wider as he spoke of his brother. Rebecca noticed this. "But it is very lonely sometimes. Nii-sama is very busy most of the time, and he tries his best to be a good brother to me, but sometimes you still feel alone." He turned to her, his sharp violet eyes probing her. "Do you know the feeling?"  
  
She shook her head in affirmation. "My father is away most of the time on business, and when he's not he's yelling at some corporate big shot over the phone or running to the office on days off for extra hours. I'm an only child, too. My mother is sort of quiet these days. She cries a lot at night when Dad's gone, too. I can hear her in my bedroom." Her voice became almost a whisper. "And the worse thing is, I'm homeschooled, so I don't even have a friend to confide into." She looked up at the young boy listening sympathetically beside her. "You're the first person I've been able to tell this to."  
  
The distant sound of a J-pop Christmas concert filled the silence. "You know, we're a lot alike, in some ways. You have both parents; but you feel like you have none. We're both wealthy, and have relatives in the Duel Monsters business. And we're the same age."  
  
"Yeah........" she said, thinking about what Mokuba had just said, let the wind carry her words away.  
  
Mokuba studied her, remembering the first time he'd seen her with Yuugi and company. He felt his heart jump a little. Maybe, just maybe... his Christmas wish would come true.  
  
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A nice, polished ending. I like this coupling, it's very sweet. This was also a post Across the Aquarium You Stare Back at Me story (A very unfinished Seto/Anzu fic of mine), but I ended up dropping it and postponing Across. Review if you'd like more... the next thing I have is a Jounouchi/Mai concept titled 'Found What We Weren't Looking For'.  
  
Ja ne! 


	2. Reflecting Back to That Day

Reflecting Back to That Day... by Cooking Spray  
  
Basic Mai/Jounouchi fluff, told from her POV. I wrote it, half- finished, and I liked it but didn't know what to do with it... so, I wrapped it up nicely and here you go! Kinda sweet, really. Enjoy!  
  
Also, the 'Found What We Weren't Looking For' document seems to have (quote quote) "misplaced" itself on my hardrive. So here's another J/M vingette, just not the exact piece I intended to upload. Sorry for the inconvenience!  
  
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Almost has been two months since this rugged battle has ended. A lot of change has happened since Kaiba started this game. And forever changed are we, although none of us really expected it.  
  
This seems odd coming from someone like me, doesn't it? I'm used to the critcisms and stereotypes by this point. I'm a woman playing a man's game, and for that I'm underestimated. The fact I also come across as a pin- up model makes my male duelists give me a lower level of respect by thinking I haven't a brain because of my body. These things don't bother me much, I know myself their opinions are wrong, and I was always ready to prove it. Maybe a little too ready at times, too eager to succeed and prove a worth that was in vain. There will always be those who criticize no matter how you strive to reverse their image of you.  
  
But someone showed me that didn't matter. Even though I scoffed at the time, I thought about those words for a long time after that duel. In a way, they revolutionized me. They were simple, as everything attributed them is, but conveyed a message more important to me than could be said even in Shakespearean writings.  
  
That person was Jounouchi Katsuya.  
  
I still chuckle a little at that. He's clumsy, he's even perhaps a little dense in moments. He's not the person you envision at the side of a girl like myself. I know I could have better. But do I want it? Isn't what I have the better for me?  
  
And yet, I've come to love him. Despite his obvious faults. When you love, you learn to ignore such things, and in your eyes you see only purity. In Jounouchi I see a good heart, even though he's not so intelligent. I regret having broken it. I see a good friend. Someone who cares, who duels not out for trophies, money, or even superiority over his opponents, but for himself, to prove his confidence. His clumsiness is even a bit cute if you look at it in the right light.  
  
I think back to a rainy day not but a month in the past.  
  
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I looked at my deck. Turning the familiar cards over in my hands. These were the cards that had won me so many battles. That had brought me to Battle City. And now it was over. I clenched and unclenched my fists, looking at them and trying to find something, anything to bring meaning to the hardships I had endured. My cards, just like my hands, somehow looked worn, soiled from battle.  
  
A shadow blocked my path. I turned my glance to find my intruder. I didn't really feel like company. An empty emotion had overshadowed my soul ever since Battle City had come to a close. I wanted to be alone. I was still searching. But for what?  
  
At last my eyes locked with the producer of the shadow. My eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Jounouchi!"  
  
He smiled his famous good-natured grin. My cheeks felt hot. I was embarrassed for him to see me like this, so I quickly turned my head down.  
  
"What's up, Mai?" he asked casually, his hands jammed in his pockets as he sauntered over to take a seat by me. That's the thing about Jounouchi; everything's casual.  
  
Somehow my feelings of desperation and searching that I so desperately wanted to tap back into were shut off. I couldn't tell Jounouchi to go away, and somehow I didn't want him to. It was a funny feeling. For once, he was the dominant in the conversation.  
  
He blinked once and cocked his head to the side in genuine puzzlement, something often imitated but almost never true. But it was with Jounouchi and easy and honest gesture to pull off. If I looked up I was sure I'd die.  
  
"What's the matter, cat got your tongue?"  
  
My cheeks flared, and he continued to look at me quizzically. "Amou, Jounouchi-kun...... I wasn't expecting you.........."  
  
He grinned sheepishly, scratching his neck. "Oh, sorry.......... Heh, Just thought I'd say hello.......... I'll leave now, if you want to be alone......."  
  
"Mm mm," I said in a small voice, barely within hearing.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Don't leave......"  
  
He blinked confusedly. My internal fire was fed once more. God, it was so cute I could hardly stand it.  
  
"Mai, really, all you have to say is-"  
  
"Jounouchi-kun!" It was too much. I flung my arms around him, burying my face in his shoulder to quell the feeling. He was shocked, but I didn't care. He was all around me, and everything was right with the world.  
  
His eyes widened, I knew it, but I didn't care. Finally this part of me that had been aching just suddenly stopped, and I clung tighter. And I knew then it was right... more than ever.  
  
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Ours was an odd relationship, for a while. I was shy but proud to be seen traversing the streets with my arm linked in his. But we both got used to it, eventually. We're happy now, Jou-kun and I, thinking about buying an apartment for ourselves or even renting out a little cottage in the country.  
  
Guess dumb blondes flock together. But hey, I'm not objecting.  
  
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	3. A Random SetoAnzu Intimacy

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A Random Seto/Anzu Intimacy

by Cooking Spray

Actually just a little something I wrote for the fun of it while I was testing the waters in preparation for Across the Aquarium. Intense... Reminds me of a soap opera *LOL* 

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He stepped into the hall, a tall, slender masculine figure in Anzu's path. She held her position with harsh intensity, a rare emotion. Fire blazed in her eyes and her breath was raspy and strained, yet strongly she stood still.

Seto gazed down upon her, his face a void of emotion. "Why?" he stated clearly.

"You don't deserve what they say.... and I know it. I won't... let them do it. I know it's not true........ and so do you. Consider it......... a favor. Nothing more." She spoke with a fierce determination, something she had not exerted before. Her heart raced with anticipation. But the anticipation of what?

It happened so quickly she couldn't properly react. He jerked her towards him, and their lips meshed together, his willing her deeper. She closed her eyes and gasped a little, not thinking. Everything was so fast, like a stockcar through Vegas. It felt exciting and dangerous. Somehow something was accomplished, known without being spoken, a transference of information through the first bind of their mouths.

They moved deeper into the room, his fingers grappling her back. She expelled her breath, and he felt it, warm and sweet against the corner of lips. Then they met again, mouth to mouth, skin on skin, and let the emotion take control.

She pulled away first, gasping heavily. He leaned against the bed, also short of breath. The sat there for a moment in recompose, letting the tense exhilaration settle into regularity as they thought of nothing.

"Change into something. In my mother's closet," he said heavily, leaving the room and closing the door behind him. Her blue eyes were illuminated in the dark room only by the moonlight that shown through the curtains. She hastily grabbed a pink silk nightgown and began discarding her uniform, slipping her body into it, and found a matching lace cover-up and also jerked that over her shoulders.

He snapped the door open, in blue silk pajamas with the top completely unbuttoned. The resumed their kiss, but the fierce passion faded away and became gentle. She looked into the blues of his eyes and saw uncertainty, and smiled beautifully, stroking the side of his face and whispering in his ear, "Keep me warm."

And they slid into the bed, the same bed in which both Seto and Mokuba had been conceived. And he did keep her warm, her head against his bare chest and their fingers interwoven until they were almost in unity. And they drifted off into eternal peace.

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	4. A Piece of Isis Bakura Fluffery

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Yami Bakura/Isis Fluffery

by Cooking Spray

Yep, the title says it all... a charming, melancholy scene somewhere in a Cairo hospital.

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"Bakura.........." she repeated softly as she rested her head next to his chest, her hand upon the bandages that covered his wounds. That somehow stung her, also. Her skin was smooth, not a single scar upon it. She'd never been subjected to any level of pain, had her life endangered. It wasn't fair. Why must he suffer so much and she watch the people suffering from the safe confines of her palace? Status shouldn't matter. She was undeserving of her good fortune. Why was she cursed with this love for him? He was a savage, heartless tomb raider; she a timid, sweet priestess. She could have better. Yet something called out to her, that first time she saw him battered and worn and as humane as any soul after the battle with Malik, and so it remained. And in that time she had grown to love him, despite his cruel doings. Then a new thought arrived. What if he needed her to guide him as much as she wanted to help? No, it wasn't possible....... was it?

"... Please, open those eyes... you're wrong, someone cares... it's me... Isis..." Her vision became clouded, and before she was aware of it, she was crying again. She felt the warm, salty liquid slide down her cheek. A nurse came in and saw her, looking at her with an expression of pity and sorrow and understanding.

_Don't give me pity, _Isis thought, _I'm not the one who needs it now. Pity him. His troubles are so much greater than my petty ones._

"I know how hard this is," said the nurse softly in her soothing-the-patient voice as she lifted a thin blanket from a supply cabinet.

_No you don't. That's what they all say. You don't know him. You don't know how hard this is. _But she kept this all to her own. Let the woman help, it can't do any harm.

The young woman pulled up a chair for the priestess to sit in. She wrapped the blanket around her, smiling at her in what Isis would say was an attempt to console her, but she needed none of it.

"There, rest now. We'll take good care of him, don't worry. Just sleep, it'll be all okay in the morning."

Of course it wouldn't be okay, but Isis nodded anyway. What else could she do? The lady exited the room then, looking ready to try her routine on other guests just like she.

Isis lowered her head onto the bedding beside Bakura, feeling the warmth of his body. Her tired eyelids shut, and she let the warm comfort of the blanket envelop her exhausted body. Then she slept, thinly but well, wishing to see his eyes open and for she to be the first one he would see.

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